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LSU’s Greatest Accomplishments

Experience Success!

On the football field, experiences are made by one-handed catches, last-minute touchdowns, and championship trophies held high. In LSU’s classrooms, research facilities, and community outreach programs, experiences are made when lives around the world are positively impacted. A comprehensive list of all LSU success stories would likely fill the Georgia Dome. Here are but a few:

Experience the Arts!

Since the founding of the Southern Review in the 1930s, the College of Humanities & Social Sciences has been the home of great writing, most recently commemorated in The Best of LSU Fiction published by LSU Press, which features such legendary writers as Robert Penn Warren, Walker Percy, and Jean Stafford. LSU’s graduate writing program is ranked in the top 25 nationally, and works by its faculty and graduates appear everywhere, from the best-seller list to HBO’s Tremé to The Late Show with David Letterman.

College of Music & Dramatic Arts alumnus Bill Conti is an Oscar-winning composer who has written theme music for several well-known movies, including Gonna Fly Now from the Rocky films, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. Conti won the 1984 Academy Award for the score to The Right Stuff.

The Division of Textiles, Apparel Design & Merchandising in the School of Human Ecology in the College of Agriculture is top-notch and has placed students in internships with Vera Wang, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren, just to name a few.

Alumnus Anthony Ryan Auld was a contestant, and runner up for fan favorite, on season 9 of Project Runway and is currently appearing in Project Runway All Stars.

College of Art & Design alumnus Marty Sixkiller is an editorial/post supervisor in the research & development division at PDI/DreamWorks, and was technical director for Shrek the Third, Shrek 2, and Over the Hedge.

Experience Diversity!

This fall, LSU received the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education, and the Greater Baton Rouge Society for Human Resource Management’s Excellence in Diversity Award.

School of Social Work students have worked to promote statewide advocacy in alleviating sexual exploitation and abuse of LGBTQ populations and reducing bullying in the primary and secondary schools by providing mentors and resources for students and educators.

The University College’s Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program provides opportunities for first generation, low-income, and underrepresented students to pursue graduate educational experiences leading to doctoral degrees. Since the program’s inception, LSU McNair scholars who continue into graduate study have a 66 percent graduate school completion rate and 45 former scholars now have doctoral degrees.

The French Education Project at LSU focuses on teacher preparation, material development, and research in Francophone cultures with special emphasis on Louisiana’s Francophone heritage and French immersion for more than 3,000 students in 25 public schools in nine school districts.

Experience Education!

DesignIntelligence has ranked the LSU College of Art & Design’s Robert S. Reich School of Landscape Architecture #1 in the country in undergraduate education for three consecutive years.

The world’s largest general scientific society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, has named 14 LSU College of Science faculty members as fellows over the last few years, placing the university among the top 10 percent of U.S. universities.

Teaching students about the intersection of media and public affairs may be the most important subject in mass communication today. The LSU Manship School of Mass Communication is the only communication school in the country granting degrees in media and public affairs at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels. The school has earned a national reputation for turning out professionals and scholars at the highest level.

The LSU Center for Internal Auditing (LSUCIA) in the E. J. Ourso College of Business has established itself as the premier internal audit program in the world. Numerous institutions globally have modeled themselves off of LSUCIA, and the center boasts 18 recipients of the Institute of Internal Auditors’ Student Highest Achievement Award. The latest is Eliana Arvelo, who was recognized for this feat in July 2011.

Experience Research!

Through the College of Engineering, LSU is the only university in North America where future petroleum engineers can get hands-on training in well control by working at a full-scale well control facility, the Petroleum Engineering Research & Technology Transfer Laboratory.

The College of Science recently received an $11 million grant for the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Center, one of only 16 university centers in the U.S.

The School of the Coast & Environment’s global reputation in coastal and wetlands expertise means faculty are frequently called upon to provide expert testimony, commentary, and insight—which is why in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010, LSU faculty were featured in more than 450 media interviews, including network news, morning shows, late night talk shows, and interviews with reporters from around the world.

Millie, the world’s first cloned transgenic goat, was produced as part of a research program led by Robert Godke, a faculty member in the College of Agriculture and the LSU AgCenter. Millie’s milk contained a therapeutic protein, which could be extracted to produce a drug used in patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery.

Experience Service!

LSU’s Coastal Roots Program conducts school-based nursery programs involving more than 5,000 students in 18 parishes in hands-on habitat restoration that has resulted in the successful planting of more than 50,000 trees to date.

In association with Fitness Testing of Louisiana School Children, a team from the College of Human Sciences & Education provides services to five parishes by training teachers and providing support and guidance on best practice interventions to increase physical activity and improve the fitness and health of 63,271 students (2009-present).

Undergraduates in a School of Renewable Natural Resources service-learning course study coastal wetland loss and restoration while monitoring the effectiveness of small wetland restoration projects that would otherwise not be studied. With assistance from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, students monitor the survival of wetland planting projects on public land at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Master’s level students in the School of Social Work provided more than 43,000 volunteer internship hours across the state of Louisiana in various social service agencies during the fall 2011 semester.